


Demolition Lovers

by vtholmes



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alcohol, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Running Away, Unhealthy Sleeping Habits, War Mention, based off an mcr song of the same title, but not really bc the world's been destroyed in a nuclear war, kinda a song fic but not really i guess?, neither of them have icy blue eyes but bear with me, nuclear summer, there's a lyric about robbing a liquor store in the song this is based off, unhealthy eating habits, vaguely 90s, vaguely postapocalyptic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-15
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:34:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26978170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vtholmes/pseuds/vtholmes
Summary: Hand in mine, into your icy bluesAnd then I'd say to you we could take to the highwayWith this trunk of ammunition tooI'd end my days with you in a hail of bullets
Relationships: Slovenia/2p Poland (Hetalia)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 7





	1. We could take to the highway

There was only the two of them in middle of nowhere. It was a surprise really that the rusty car that was falling apart around them still worked.

Franek's eyes were on the dusty road, which was bathing in the first rays of sunshine since they took off at their hometown.

Janez's insides were buzzing, a little bit from not sleeping all night, and a little from the adrenaline that has since wore off and left him lightheaded.

"You can sleep," Franek muttered, perhaps noticing the exhaustion in Janez's eyes through the rear-view mirror, and perhaps taking his own exhaustion into consideration.

It's been days since any in the pair even thought about sleep. What kept them awake at first was planning and wondering if their plan was going to work, and now it was the adrenaline rush that came with the execution of their escape.

"No ..." Janez softly responded, leaning his head on the dusty window, "Can't sleep. It's too late ..."

He glanced at Franek, his thoughts on the day they decided to run away from home. It must've only been one week at most, but it very much felt like years, if not decades ago.

They only found their ride a week ago, and Janez still couldn't help but imagine himself being five years old in the memory where he tapped the hood of the newly found car and announced something along the lines of "Hey Fran, what if we ran away in this thing?"

They weren't even dating in the recollection of his memory, although they've been a thing since their sophomore year and have since graduated - when was that? A month ago? A century ago?

He sighed, his mind now shifting to thinking about all the seconds they spent sending longing glances to each other across the classroom and the stolen kisses in dark broom closets ...

And to the newly gained freedom.

That single thought, or maybe the fact he was just so tired, made him dizzy, and lost in the vast emptiness of space. He didn't want to think about it further, so he rather redirected his thoughts back to the past.

Running away from home was not a new idea for them a week ago. So many tender moments must have passed between them, where one of them would suggest they could just leave the town behind. They both just wanted a quiet life, away from everyone else, especially their fathers.

That thought reminded him he was hungry, sinve he hasn't had time to eat among all the planning and nerves that were killing him. And that reminded him that his mouth was completely dry and he really needed a drink too.

His thoughts trailed back to him and Franek, and he softly sighed. "They'll kill us if they find us ..." he mumbled.

"Yeah," Franek agreed, not averting focus from the road.


	2. I'd end my days with you in a hail of bullets

An hour or so later, Franek was still driving. Janez fell asleep at some point, and even though he was tired, he didn't dare stopping for the day so he could sleep too. He was way too afraid that the car would stop working completely if he did, and then their fathers wouldn't have to find them before they died.

_They'll kill us if they find us ..._

Janez's words would not leave his mind, and they kept replaying over and over in his mind like broken record. He was right, of course, but only when Janez expressed that thought, it actually hit Franek.

Not that they'd be any more alive if they stayed at home.

Franek sighed, forcing his eyes to stay open and focused on the dusty road that was now bathing in the early morning sunlight.

Jan muttered something incomprehensible in his sleep and shifted a little, which made Franek softly smile.

He was too tired to keep smiling for too long, and he was also busy thinking about their fathers, especially his own. God, he was always so angry about Franek's existance, even though it was his fault he existed.

He probably wouldn't be as much of a dick if Franek would actually stand wearing all those posh rich people clothes instead of hiding in all his layers of hoodies. And well, he'd probably prefer if Franek looked straighter than he was.

Janez probably had bigger problems than Franek, or at least Fran believed so because everyone's problems were bigger than his own anyway. At least Franek was not treated like a show animal at home just for monetary gain after all. He did not have to because his father was ridiculously wealthy anyway. Not that Franek would ever have had the opportunity to use that money for anything.

Nothing was just what he got because his only actual father figure was a selfish prick.

Franek let himself blink, but only really quickly, not trusting himself to not fall asleep if he had his eyes closed for more than a fraction of a second. In the distance, he could see a lonely building. He couldn't figure out what it was from the distance, or how long it was going to take for them to get there. Maybe he was going to stop there, or maybe he was going to keep going, he didn't know yet.


	3. I'm trying to let you know just how much you mean to me

When Janez woke up, Franek was still driving.

His dream still lingered in the back of his head, only a feeling and some images he couldn't put together anymore. Like so often, it was not a good dream, it never was when it included his father. The feeling of running but not being able to escape was still making his heart race. He took a deep breath, hoping that it would leave, but it didn't.

He sat up, staring in front of himself for a little while longer, wishing he had coffee, or some other sort of caffeine source to help him wake up. He let out a sad groan, the only thing he had the energy to vocalize. 

"There's some energy drinks on the back seat," Franek reminded him. Janez didn't like the smell of energy drinks, but his throat was so dry, and he needed some sort of boost to fully wake up, so he couldn't really complain.

Janez turned around and reached for the nearest can in the back. The car was tiny, and his limbs were all awkwardly long, so he didn't have much trouble grabbing one, and with his newly obtained energy drink, he returned to sitting normally.

A few minutes, or maybe an hour passed, before Janez was awake enoung to speak. "Let's switch," he said to Franek, "You need sleep."

"I'm okay," Franek shook his head.

"Franek, please ..." Janez softly sighed, stretching his legs as much as the car's size would let him. "You need your rest too."

Fanek stubbornly huffed. "No, we can't stop ..."

Janez pulled his feet back towards his seat. "Fran, love, please." He fully turned towards Franek, trying his hardest to stay calm, although he was getting annoyed, and although he was worried, and although his emotion started showing in his nervous habit, fiddling with the hem of his jacket's sleeve. "If you don't let me drive, we're going to end up driving into something and die."

"But the car-"

"It will be okay, please just ..." he softly sighed, "Pull over. Let's switch. We can't find a better place if we die in this desert."

Franek stayed quiet, tapping his fingers against the steering wheel, as if he was considering his options.

The silence fell on them for a few minutes, or maybe an hour. Janez leaned on the dirty window, trying to focus what little he could see through the dirt, and not focus on Franek's stubborness, which was frankly starting to upset him.

Suddenly, the car stopped. The engine kept running so it took Janez about a moment to notice that the outside wasn't rushing past anymore. He turned to Franek. Now that he wasn't focused on the road, Janez could notice just how exhuasted his boyfriend seemed.

"I'm trying to get us over there ..." he softly mumbled, pointing at what Janez figured out was a flock of seemingly abandoned buildings. It was still hours away, Janez guessed, but his time perception wasn't working right, and it could've been closer or further away than he was estimating.

Janez nodded. He got out of the car and walked over to the other side of the vehicle, glad that he could move his legs for at least a little bit. He opened the door for Franek, who did not seem to want to stop. He did get out of the car when the door opened only to wrap his hands around Janez and mumbled something about him getting closer. He knew what to expect by that point, he was nearly a foot taller than Franek after all, and he's heard that phrase many times before.

The first time they kissed, in the darkness of their school's locker room after hours, Janez thought it was very awkward. He didn't know what to do with his nose, and their noses bumped, and he kept worrying Franek was bothered by his piercings and he had to break the kiss to ask him about it, and then he felt embarrassed when Franek said no and that he shouldn't worry about it and then kissed him again to prove his point. He liked the kiss, but it made him feel so awkward when he looked back on it.

This kiss was nothing like that at all. It was brief, and it made him briefly forget about the sense of danger he couldn't run away from. Franek felt so much more fragile than he usually did. He could feel just how tired his boyfriend was, and if they owned a bed he'd attempt to carry him there and tuck him in. Not that he could actually pick him up, his muscles just weren't built for that.

Instead Janez opened the back door for Franek, and helped him settle into the seat. He gently pressed a kiss on his forehead, before closing the door for him too and slipping onto the driver's seat.

When he started driving, he checked Franek through the rear-view mirror. He was already sleeping.


	4. After all the things we put each other through

The car was still when Franek regained his senses, and Janez was not in the car. The sun was setting somewhere behind the car, extending the shadows and bathing the world around him in warm orange colour and a weird sense of nostalgia.

His heart skipped a beat when his mind focused on the fact Janez was seemingly not there, and he was terrified that something had happened to him. Maybe he was dead? Maybe he was never in the car with him at all? Has he been dreaming ...?

But the right back door opened, and the face Franek was just coming to terms of never seeing again appeared.

"Good m-" Jan paused, furrowing his eyebrows as he realized the word he was going to use may not have been the best choice, "... evening."

Franek softly smiled. "Hey, Jan ..."

Janez returned him the smile, before answering the question that was lingering on the tip of Franek's tongue. "I stopped at the place you wanted to get to, and I didn't want to wake you up."

He let out an 'ah' at that and nodded.

His eyes brushed over Jan's features, exaggerated by the lighting. He was handsome like always, of course, but Franek couldn't help but notice how sunken his cheeks and eyes were, a reminder he must not have eaten in a while. Franek wondered if that was how he looked too.

He learnt to recognize when Janez was not getting food even before they started dating. Not that Janez did not want to eat, as Franek had initially assumed. He had an appettite of a bear before winter, after all, and Franek had seen Janez consume what to him seemed like impossible amounts of food that seemingly only affected his height.

Franek still remembered the day he connected the dots together. He'd known before, as everyone at school seemed to, about Janez's career as a child beauty pageant king. It did make sense, since Janez was pretty, and model-shaped. And yet, he learnt that Mr Cankar, Janez's father, would not allow him anywhere near any sustenance a few days before a show.

After that, Franek started bringing Janez lunch whenever he noticed Janez looked sort of sickly. And looking at him now, covered in the light of the setting sun, Franek felt the urge to do the same now.

The problem was, they barely had any food besides cereal bars.

Instead, the one thing he could offer was cuddles.

He extended his arms towards Janez, and softly mumbled something along the lines of 'come here' but even he was not exactly sure if he actually said that, and if Janez understood what he was saying at all.

Janez seemingly considered something for a moment, before removing the junk they had scattered across the backseats and sinking inside the vehicle. He scooted closer and grabbed the blanket Franek had picked up at home in a rush.

"Night's cold," he simply said as explanation. He unfolded the blanket for them to cover in before finally snuggling closer to Franek.

He was fairly sure they both smelled like sweat and dirt and old cars, but he got so used to it that he didn't even register it when he burrowed his face in the nook of Janez's neck.

It was the first moment of stillness they've shared since leaving their hometown. It was just them, and Franek could sense Janez's chest rising and falling in tandem with his own, and he could feel hiss warmth, and he could hear his breathing, and he could even feel his breath brushing through his hair. He could also feel the pain from sleeping on a crappy old car backseat creeping in, but he didn't give it much though.

It was him, and Jan, and the darkness that was closing in on them.


	5. I would drive on, to the end with you

Janez was leaning on the hood of the car, watching as Franek was trying to figure out if the gas station they stopped at had any gas left in it at all. It was noon when they woke up, and after the unsatisfying breakfast of energy drinks and cereal bars, got out of the car to escape its heat. The outside wasn't any cooler, the air wasn't moving at all and Janez had a hard time existing. He still stubbornly kept his leather jacket on though. It was his armour, after all, and wearing it made him feel so much safer.

Minutes that felt like hours, or maybe hours that felt like minutes, passed by, before Franek suddenly let out an excited cry. "Jan, there's still gas!"

Janez let out a shaky chuckle, realizing that the desert heat was making his head feel a little hazy. His mind's been a little hazy this entire time, but now especially he felt like he was stuck in honey, with everything moving by in slow motion.

"How far do you think we can get with a full tank?" Janez asked, barely registering as Franek plugged the fuel pipe into their small boxy car.

"Dunno ..." Fran responded. "Far enough? But this thing's old ..."

Janez nodded. "It's probably been rusting since the war," he remarked, then turned towards a dusty town a little further ahead from the gas station. He couldn't keep looking at Franek, knowing that he would get upset if he knew how overheated he was getting. The perceptive gaze of his deep emerald green eyes always seemed to pierce right through him.

mentioning the war, which happened before he or Franek even began to exist, and the fallout of which eventually led to the existance of this vast desert they were stuck in, made Janez feel nostalgic for something he never got to experience. The tales of green forests, constantly buzzing streets and the knowledge that the world used to be so much less isolating always made him yearn for something more, and the melancholy softly washed over him.

"Probably," Franek agreed, pushing himself away from the car, which made the vehicle wobble slightly.

Janez turned back to him, crossing his arms on his chest, now watching Franek as he went to fill the one nearby canister that wasn't broken in any way with some more gas, so they could refill the car if needed.

"We'll need to get some more food later ..." Franek mumbled, and Janez had to agree.

"Do you think there's anything in that town over there?" he asked.

It took a moment for Fran to respond with a quiet 'dunno, hopefully'.

Janez let out a soft 'hopefully' in response to that, but he could barely hold on to that hope, and he knew it was the same for Franek. They got so far and they couldn't just starve to death now.

Just seconds later, or maybe hours, he noticed a noise ... or well, a lack of noise as the fuel stopped flowing into the canister.

"Fuck," Franek uttered in devastation.


End file.
